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Do you pay attention to how the mom characters are portrayed on your favorite TV shows? Loathe the so-called "mommy wars" on which the news media love to focus? Each week, Meredith O'Brien's Working Moms in Pop Culture & Politics column provides a reality check on how TV shows, movies, and the media depict moms. A longtime journalist and mother of three, Meredith O'Brien formerly taught journalism at the University of Massachusetts, is the author of A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum and writes the Picket Fence Post blog for GateHouse Media. Follow Meredith on Twitter: @MeredithOBrien

In the recent documentary Miss Representation -- which criticized American culture and the media for its negative impact on women and girls -- child advocate Marian Wright Edelman lamented the scarcity of American women politicians saying that, "You can't be what you can't see." more

The New York Times’ parenting blogger had it right when she wrote that, in order for American parents to have “fun” during their non-working hours, they need to redefine the word as we’re seeing large hunks of our time commandeered by our children’s extracurricular activities.

The first one took me along a darkened, twisty trail as girls became teenagers rebelling against their parents and wrestling with own personal demons, as teens became twentysomethings who still needed their own mothers, to women becoming mothers themselves (or wanna-be mothers) who struggled with their own rocky childhoods and tried not replicate them with their own children.

It’s 2012. You’d think we, as a culture, would be beyond trying to shoe-horn every first lady into a prefab gilded cage where she’s seen and not heard in a voice above a whisper. But apparently, we’re not. more

The Tiger Mother is back in the news . . . because she’s peddling the paperback version of her controversial 2011 memoir. And, despite all the criticism she’s received for her approach to parenting, she says that if she had it to do all over again, she’d raise her daughters in the same way. more

As 2011 comes to a close, I’ve reviewed the lessons that TV parents taught us over the past 12 months. Some were insightful, some were delightful and others were dreadfully obvious. Come on board into the 2011-in-review machine and catch a glimpse of the child-rearing teachings TV has offered us. more

Ever thought about running for office? Maybe you should! if we want our daughters (and our sons) to see women in leadership positions we, their mothers, need to step up and get more involved in politics. more